Front:
REPLICA
of first
RUTLEDGE & CAMERON
MILL-1829
New Salem, Menard County,
illinois
ERECTED BY
ROBERT CLARY BUCKLEY
4A-H1114
Back:
As early as 1828, we are told, two mer,
John Cameron and his uncle, James Rutledge,
pushing forward to what was nearly the
northernmost limit of civilization, established
a mill that was both a grist and a saw mill
upon the Sangamon at this point. As frequently
happened, the mill served as a nucleus 'round
which a town should be established and three
years later there was added to the cabins of
the two millers a blacksmith shop, two stores,
and several log dwellings. A church which
served as a school house also stood on an
adjoining hill.
The site of New Salem was laid out in 1828.
In 1836, it is said to have had twenty houses
and one hundred inhabitants. "How it van-
ished," one writer observes, "like a mist in
the morning, to what distant place its inhab-
itants dispersed, and what became of the
abodes they left behind, shall be questions
for the local historian." One of these inhab-
itants, only twenty-eight years afterward, be-
came an honored occupant of the White House.
H. N. SHONKWILER, EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTOR, SPRINGFIELD, ILL.
